Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1887-04-23
THE GREAT PREACHER.
BY REV. NV. THOMAS.

1t has long been a question of debate,
whether great men make great pc iOds, OF
whether the great periods make the great
men. However this may be, 1t Is certain
that they are always found together; they
march along side by side, as the summer
and the growing grain. The truth, prob
ably, hes on both sldess and sometimes il
inclines more to one side than the other;
and hence the debate.
Homer and Dante were The creators of
literature one some eight hundred
years before Christ, and the other thirteen
hundred years after Christ. Homer had,
for the theme and inspiration of his i'm
mortal poems the scenes Of the Trojan
wars; he stood Just back Of the great world
historic events of Confucius IN China and
Buddha in India, and ZOrOaster in Persia
and Just back OF the rlse OF Grecian
philosophy. Dante stood at the opening
of the medieval age that preceded the re-
VlVal OF learning IN Europe, and had for
his imperlshable verse the inspiration of a
great human love for the beautiful Beatrice,
and this carried over into the world Of
spirits, and all under the strange lights and
shadows Of a medieval theology.
And SO, when we come to the great
events and the great men of the sixteenth
century, We ind crowded into this wonder
ful period such iIlustious names as luther.
Leonardo da Yincis and Michael Angelo,
and Shakespeare, and COpernicus, Calvin,
and Knox. and these moved along with
such great events as the discovery of a new
continent, and the new astronomy, and the
invention Of printing and the Protestant
Reformation.
And out OF the stormy times and stirring
events in the struggles for civil and re-
hgiOus liberty In England, IN the seven
Jeenth century, there arose a Cromwell,
and the stern character Of the Puritans;
and all these elements coming over into
our New World, there were not wanting the
conditions IN naWAI0Tl nnfh CsFaQf az nd
great men. And here We ind a Washing
ton, and Lincoln, and a Grant, associated
with the war Of the revolution, and the
war for the Union, and the emancipation
Of millions Of the dark race.
When one stands IN England hlstOu-
cally, he stands back Of our own country;
and hence he is in the lines of descent,
personal, religious and civil, Of the events
that have made up the history of
this land. And thus he sees coming down
from the Puritanism of England the Con-
gregauOnallsm OF our day; and of all the
great names and the illusdiOus men OF that
line Of faith and action who have added to
the strength and the glory of America,
none has stood higher as a friend of lib
erty, friend Of man. a friend of truth and
religion, than the Rev. Henry Ward
Beecher. And as a Great Preacher-One
shape public opinion, and lift the minds
and hearts Of the millions to the nOble1
planes of thought and cOnduct-he has
stood out clearly above all his brothers IN
the ministry, of any and all churches, both
in this country and in Europe.
1t is difficult to analyZe all the elements
of this Great preachers Power. Not a little
was due to his splendid physique-his
robust health, his manly appearance, his
rich and powerful voice, and his ability to
bear up under almost any strain and bur-
den of labor. But that fine body was the
rFF "a no las of Of n
heart gentle and tender and sympathetic
as the soul of a woman. Mr.. Beecher was
too original and inspiratiOnal, and too
highly gifted as an orator, to tie himself
down to prOsy bOok-learning. He
lived in the light and the life Of all
truth and learning history, poetry, phi
lOsophy, art, sciencs-and was familiar
with all the schools and the debates of the
Ology. But all these were exalted and trans
formed and VitaliZed by the power of his
reason and the depth and briliancy of his
emotions and Imagination.
And hence this Great Preacher belonged
to, and lived in, the nineteenth century,
and was not, like too many others, a fossil
of the fifteenth or the seventeenth cent
urY IN his thought and theology, but a
man or earnest and powerful convictions.
And hence, also, he was found uncOmpro-
mlsingly standing on the side of liberty in
the great antl-slavery debates, and on the
side Of the Union as against the rebellion.
And Just as naturally was he found on the
side of liberty and progress on the ques-
tons OF science and larger Interpretation
of the Scriptures and progressive or
growing orthodoxy. He was believer in
Theistic evolution believer IN God
and in evolution as the order or method of
creation. He was a believer in the Bible
and in Jesus Christ and in future Eelribu-
ton; but he had no faith IN a verbal in
spiratiOn and no sympathy with the old
penal view of the atOnement, aud he alb
hOrred the heartless dogma Of endless
punishment.
1t is not possible to estimate the influence
of such a life upon his age, and upon the
ages to come. For almost forty years he
had been pastor Of one church, and for
fifty years a minister of the gospel. He
lived in the most exciting and important
years Of his couutry's history, and wit
messed many of its greatest even S; and by
tongue and pen has helped achieve and
shape and make possible It's proud destiny.
He had lived beyond the allotted years
of man, and hence his death, however
much it may be regretted, was not uneX-
pected. But o! how much it means for
such a man to die; for such a soul to go
away forever from the beautiful world he
loved so we'll; to close his eyes upon earth
and sea and skies and stars; to leave the
church, and the vast brotherhood Of the
millions of souls whose lives he had
touched and made betterl We must think
and believe that he still lives-nOt alone in
the life OF his children, and in his memory
and influence among men, but that his
great conscious self lives on in the higher
lfe-in the worlds of the ideal beauty and
truth and love about which he thought and
talked so much and so we'll. 1t cannot be
that the Great Preacher is buried IN the